City Council to reconsider 2005 approval of Mina de Oro gate

POWAY - The City Council will be asked Tuesday to rescind a 2005
decision that let residents of a small Mina de Oro neighborhood
install a gate at the street's intersection with Poway Road.

City Manager Rod Gould said Monday that the reversal is
necessary to bring the city in compliance with a Feb. 9 court
ruling on a case brought by Poway property owners Menachem and
Peggy Shoval, challenging the original gate decision.

The couple, who own 125 vacant acres along the middle section of
Mina de Oro, contend that several neighbors on that road and
Eucalyptus Heights Road, which juts off Mina de Oro, erected the
gate illegally to keep the Shovals from getting to their own
property.

The Shovals' lawsuit accused the city of assisting the residents
in question by approving the gate.

Council members said at the time that their decision was based
on their conclusion that Mina de Oro was a private road. A judge
who heard the Shovals' lawsuit found that the street is a public
one, however, and ordered the gate removed within 60 days.

The deadline expired April 10, but the gate remains in
place.

Menachem Shoval, who often goes by the name Manny, said Monday
that he has spent nearly $300,000 on his legal battle so far. He
expressed outrage that the gate is still up.

"The judge said Mina de Oro is a public road," he said. "And
nobody can encroach on it."

Denny Keena, who spearheaded the drive to get the gate erected
in 2004 and 2005, said Monday that he was no longer involved in the
legal fight over the barrier - something Shoval disputed.

John Fitch, a former city official who represented the
homeowners involved on a consultant basis, did not immediately
respond to a message seeking his comment Monday afternoon.

The gate across Mina de Oro has been heavily debated from the
day it was proposed. The road can be reached from either Poway Road
and Highway 67, but the section that runs through the Shovals'
property shows up as nothing more than a dotted line on area
maps.

Keena and eight other homeowners in a small neighborhood on Mina
de Oro's southern end told city officials that they needed the
electronically controlled barrier to protect their properties after
a rash of burglaries, trespassing incidents and other crime-related
problems. Gate proponents also maintained that the Shovals had no
legal right to use Mina de Oro and were supposed to access their
property via nearby Lucidi Farms Way.

The Shovals have maintained that they have a legal easement for
Mina de Oro and say their neighbors simply don't like the couple or
their dream of building soccer fields and a synagogue on their
land.

City staff members told the council in 2005 that they could not
determine whether the road was a public or private one, because
land records that go back decades are either incomplete or
inconclusive.

The council's approval of the gate came with the condition that
the Shovals' neighbors give them the barrier's access code. Manny
Shoval said Monday that the couple got the code just six months
ago, as the result of another court ruling.